“……….”

“………..”

Miko and Kristen stared at each other for a long time without saying anything.

No matter how much Miko wanted to deny it, he couldn't help but face the truth that his little brother was directing bloodlust at him.

For Miko this was a complicated manner.

Sasha could feel the tension between the two of them and couldn’t stay silent.

“Kristen, what are you doing? Come say hello to your brother.”

“No. I’m fine over here. I have no intention of acting like I’m happy to see him when I couldn’t care less if he was here or not.”

“Kristen?!”

Sasha was shocked to hear what Kristen said.

She wanted to reprimand him, but Miko stopped her.

He then walked over to his brother with a smile on his face.

“Yo, Kristen. You’ve gotten big.”

“And you’re looking more and more like a transvestite .”

“Geh!”

Kristen’s words jabbed at Miko’s weak spot and dealt a mental blow.

Miko looked at his brother again.

‘There’s no mistaking it. His eyes are filled with hate when he’s looking at me.’

He thought to himself.

Miko had always kept a close eye on his brother from the moment he started to manifest a personality.

The reason was simple.

Kristen was too much like him, or more specifically Logan.

From childhood, Kristen was anti-social, and had always prefer to be with his mother more than anything.

That wasn’t bad, but what was bad was the fact that he was also sneaky.

Kristen was very smart and cunning from he was a toddler, but not many knew this.

This was because he was a natural at deceptions.

An example is the fact that he makes it look like he’s always being led along by his sister, when in actuality he influenced her actions.

Miko noticed this while observing his siblings from time to time.

Miko determined from a long time ago that there was a chance that he and his brother would clash.

However, he was unable to understand why his brother wants to kill him now.

“Kristen, I’ll be frank with you. I know that you want to kill me, but I don’t know the reason. Can you tell me?”

Miko asked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Kristen replied.

“Then let me rephrase the sentence. Have I done something to make you mad at me?”

“Have you’ve done something?”

Miko saw Kristen’s shoulders twitched as his bloodlust grew.

“You bastard…..You say that now after leaving for a year?”

Miko could sense a demonic presence growing inside Kristen.

“You say that after making our mother cry over and over again?!”

*Boom!*

A crimson aura started leaking from his body, causing the ground to crack.

Miko narrowed his eyes when he saw that.

He recognized this as Beleth’s aura.

“Time and time again you’ve done whatever you wanted without regard to those around you, constantly hurting them. Constantly hurting our mother, who loves you the most.”

Kristen growled.

“Kristen, you got it wrong. Miko is just doing what he believes is best.”

Sasha hurriedly said.

“Then why are you always the one crying when he leaves?!”

Kristen shouted.

“That’s….”

Sasha couldn’t find the words to refute what Kristen said.

Kristen once again glared at Miko, who had a deadpan look on his face.

“The first time you left, I convinced myself that it was for your own good and that you did it to protect our family. Despite how much I watched my mother cry and how heartbroken she seemed.”

Miko recalled Sasha’s crying and pleading for him not leave after he fought his father. He knew that Sasha didn’t want him to walk a path of destruction, as a mother should.

Not only that, he remembered Kristen along with his sister begging Tiamat to make Sasha her proxy in place of Miko. This was to help Sasha who was also begging Tiamat.

Even so, Miko turned his back on her for his own ambitions.

“When we met two years later, it was the happiest I’ve ever seen our mother in a long time. I truly felt happier for her than feeling happy about seeing you. To be honest, I couldn’t care less if I had never seen you again. But as long as mama was happy it was alright.”

Miko remembered his reunion with his mother and siblings, he honestly felt happy to see them again.

“However, despite mama fighting for your sake you left again without saying a word. Once again causing her to worry and feel sorrow.”

Miko remembered when he left with Momo to join the Dragna Clan in search for power.

He did so without saying a thing to anyone, causing them to worry.

“However four years later when we met again I sensed a change in you and thought that we could get along better.”

Miko remembered when he reunited with everyone after the war with Krow. He had a great change in his psyche after experiencing hell in the Illusionary beast Valley.

He admitted his love for his mother and no longer hid from her.

“Mama once again fought for you, once again putting her life at risk for your ambition. And what happened next? You became a monster and hurt her.”

Miko remembered when he ignored Tia’s warning and looked at Augustus’s portrait, thus allowing Deus Malum to go berserk.

He heard that he hurt Sasha and everyone around him, but Miko himself didn’t really remembered it. Even so he apologized to everyone he hurt.

“To make matters worse you just got up and leave again, leaving behind only a video which not even stated where you were going or what you were going to do.”

Kristen’s body started trembling.

“Don’t fuck with me, you bastard! Just how selfish can you be?! You really think everyone would smile and welcome you back?! Well, not me! Just go die somewhere out of sight and let our mother be free of your selfishness!”

“Kristen, you bastard!”

*Bam!*

Tessa shouted and kicked Kristen across the face sending him crashing through the pillar.

She walked up and grabbed him.

“How dare you tell our brother to die?!”

She said while she shook him.

“Let me go.”

Kristen said

“What I said was the truth. Someone needs to call him out.”

“Even if that’s true, which mother would want to hear her children telling each other to die?! You’re the one making mama sad right now!”

“I said let me go, bitch!”

*Boom!*

Kristen punched Tessa in the stomach and sent her crashing into the next side of the hall.

Kristen got to his feet with crimson and purple aura dancing around him.

“Touch me again, and I’ll kill you.”

“Huh?!”

In response Tessa freed herself from the wall she was lodged in and glared at him as black, crimson, and purple aura danced around her.

“Say that again, and we’ll see just who kills who!”

The two's words were knitted with bloodlust.

The two took a step forward while looking eager to kill the other. Miko saw that and looked ready to intervene at any moment

“The Three of you stop fighting!”

That’s when Sasha’s roared accompanied by an overwhelming amount of death aura causing the three to halt.

“The three of you scatter now! And don’t come back until I call for you!”

Her voice was filled with anger and left no room for defiance.

The three of them including Miko scattered to cool their heads separately.

Before he left Miko took a look at Sasha’s face and saw it painted with sadness.

He then stared at Kristen’s retreating back and sense great hostility from it.

He said nothing and left the palace.

“Leon.”

“I got it. I’ll deal with Kristen, however it won’t be simple.”

“I’m begging you.”

Sasha said with a sad tone.

Leon nodded and went towards Kristen.

Alone, Sasha held her head.

“Why did it turn out like this?”

After he left the palace Miko meet up with Luka and the others and narrated what occurred between him and Kristen.

“I noticed that Kristen would become irritated every time your name was mentioned in the year you were gone, and realized that something was wrong.”

Said Luka.

“I noticed it too, but I discarded it as him being angry like we were. I never thought that he was this upset.”

Said Hina.

“So you have problems with your brother? What are you going to do Miko?”

Asked Bloom.

“Problems, huh?”

Miko sighed and looked up to the ceiling.

“The problem isn’t Kristen’s hatred for me, but the power that’s growing inside him.”

“You mean his demonic powers?”

Asked Sora.

Miko nodded.

“It looks like just like my father, Kristen is a vessel for Beleth.”

“Vessel?”

Sapphire looked confused.

“It’s like how I have half of Beleth’s soul within me and it gives me power. Being a vessel means that you’re destined to become a demon similar to Beleth. Something like an offspring of his, if you will. Those vessels will experience a rapid growth in strength until the day they die.”

“That’s kind of amazing.”

“Kristen is an A Class, but considering that he’s been training under my grandmother for the last two years, it’s safe to say that his strength is on a S Class level. Couple that with his demonic growth he could be able to give me a bit of trouble if we fought.”

Said Miko.

“Wait. Why are you thinking about fighting your brother? Shouldn’t you try to patch things up?”

Asked Ace.

“That’s impossible. Kristen is too much like me, once he sets his mind on hating someone he’ll continue to hate. It won’t be long before he’ll decide to attack me. Fighting is unavoidable.”

Miko then leaned his head back and sighed.

“You know Miko, Kristen is right though.”

Hina suddenly said.

“You have a habit of leaving those who care about you behind and go off to a far away place. This causes those who love you to worry because we don’t know when you’ll be back or if you’ll come back.”

“……….”

Miko didn’t say anything and thought about what Hina said.

He had to admit that he wasn’t one to stay in one place for too long. This stems from his life as Logan Cross.

Back then he would always be on the move, changing life to life discarding everyone who came into his old lives.

It wasn’t a habit he could just break so easily.

The biggest proof of this is the fact that Miko still plans on venturing the world alone when he successfully creates an empire.

“Hmm….So this is 100% my fault huh?”

Everyone nodded immediately.

“I guess I’ll try to work things out then.”

Meanwhile Kristen who left the palace was walking with Leon through the Middle Class District.

There was a frown on his face as he walked.

“You know you were out of line right?”

Said Leon.

“I know. But just seeing him acting like he did nothing wrong makes my blood boil.”

Kristen said.

“That’s your demon blood influencing your thoughts. It will continue to eat away at your reasoning until you become a blood thirst monster.”

Leon smiled at him.

“Like me.”

“If anyone is a bloodthirsty monster then it’s miko. I’ve watched him do some devilish things all through my life. In my eyes, he’s more of a demon than anyone else.”

“Could it be that you’re afraid of your brother?”

Leon asked.

“No way. If he’s a monster then I’ll become one too. A bigger monster than he can ever be.”

Kristen’s eyes turned crimson when he said that.

“Otherwise I won’t be able to kill him.”

Leon started laughing when he heard that.

“I know I’m suppose to prevent you two from fighting, but I kind of want to see it, a fight between my sons. I don’t know if it’s because my demonification that I lose my compassion as a parent, or something else all together, but a fight between the two of you would definitely be worthwhile.”

He smiled.

“Miko who holds one half of Beleth’s soul or you who holds the other half. I wonder who would be the last one standing in the end?”

Leon then shook his head.

“But I’m afraid a fight between the two of you would break your mother’s heart. So if you two really love her, it’s best you both find a way to compromise.”

After he said so Leon smiled, patted Kristen’s head and left.

Kristen was left alone with his own thoughts.

(What is there to be confused about?)

That’s when he suddenly heard a voice in his head.

Inside his soul there was a muscular man wrapped in crimson and gold armor. He had intimidating crimson eyes and and a handsome face.

This was the dead great king of hell, Beleth.

(That brother of yours should be killed. Otherwise, he’ll continue to make your mother suffer.)

“Beleth.”

(Yes?)

“Shut the fuck up.”

(Oh?)

“You think I’m stupid? I know you want me to kill Miko to prevent him from obtaining your power.”

(I won’t deny that. I don’t know what the soul fragment that was in him was thinking, giving him half of our soul, but in my opinion you would make a much better Beleth. I mean you’re the perfect vessel we’ve been searching for.)

“Whether I become beleth or not doesn’t matter. As long as I obtain the power to protect my mother, everything else doesn’t matter. I’ll become Satan himself.”

(Damn, mother’s boy.)

Kristen smiled.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”